From 'the Citi Never Sleeps' to 'Name Your Price'

Richard S. Braddock, president of Citicorp before an abrupt departure in 1992, is back in a top job-at an electronic commerce start-up.

Mr. Braddock, 56, last week was named chairman and chief executive officer of Priceline.com. Founded in April, the company invites on-line consumers to name a desired price for a product or service, and later returns with a proposed deal.

Mr. Braddock was an early investor in Stamford, Conn.-based Priceline and retains his seat on its board.

The founder, Jay Walker, 42, became vice chairman. He is also chairman and CEO of Walker Digital, the intellectual property laboratory where the Priceline system, which was awarded a patent last month, was invented.

Mr. Walker called Mr. Braddock "one of the true superstars of American business," with "the tools and experience to build on Priceline.com's already impressive sales growth."

The privately held operation employs more than 100 people.

Mr. Braddock has a strong consumer marketing background, and his interests since leaving Citicorp have "tended toward technology or technology-supported areas in an intermediate-size company" he said in an interview.

"I'm extremely interested in growth-oriented companies," he said. "Priceline appealed to me because it is using the Internet as a one-on-one marketing channel to change a business paradigm, ideally for the better.

The service offers "distinctive new benefits for buyers and sellers," Mr. Braddock said. "A seller can offer his inventory through a set of distribution channels that are different from the traditional channel. He can reduce the price to the consumer without harming the basic price structure in his business."

Priceline currently has 15 domestic and international airline carriers selling leisure travel tickets anonymously.

A consumer can ask for a round trip for a certain date and destination, and Priceline will get a response within 24 hours. Credit card payments are accepted on-line or by "800" number. There is no membership fee or pre- qualification; Priceline makes money on the spread between the consumer's bid and the ticket price.

In its first four months, Priceline.com sold more than 50,000 airline tickets. Mr. Braddock said it is on a pace to generate "$750 million in firm offers for airline tickets from consumers in the first year of operation."

Priceline said Aug. 4 that it had received $20 million in second-round financing from General Atlantic Partners. A week later it got Patent No. 5,794,207 for its electronic commerce approach.

Priceline also has a new car-buying service and has financial services, hotel stays, and vacation packages in the works.

On Monday, Priceline said that beginning this fall it would offer its system in conjunction with the Lending Tree Inc. on-line network of 13 institutions offering mortgages, home equity, auto, personal, and credit card loans.

The alliance will be the only one of its kind with the "name your price" feature. Once an applicant does so, Charlotte, N.C.-based Lending Tree's filtering software would route the information to the lenders most likely to meet the terms. Borrowers are to receive responses within hours.

This partnership will "give us a very large stream of very motivated borrowers," said Jamey Bennett, director of Lending Tree.

Mr. Braddock, a one-time product manager for Tang at General Foods Corp., joined Citibank in 1973 as vice president in the New York branch system. He became head of U.S. consumer activities in 1984 and was president and chief operating officer of Citicorp and Citibank from 1990 to 1992.

After that he served as CEO of Medco Containment Services Inc., a manager of prescription drug plans, which was sold to Merck & Co.

In September 1994, Mr. Braddock was named chairman of Van Kampen/American Capital Inc., a role that stemmed from his partnership in Clayton Dubilier & Rice, an investment buyout company.

More recently he has done some work with Lotus Development Corp., General Atlantic Partners, and E-Trade Group. He serves on several boards, including those of Cadbury Schweppes, Eastman Kodak, and E-Trade, and is nonexecutive chairman of the advertising holding company True North Communications Inc.

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